After the debacle that was the cancellation of the TSR.2, the European nations aligned (for once) in the common need for a new Multi-Role fighter, and partnerships began forming an dissolving, resulting in the joining of British Aerospace (now BAe), Aeritalia and MBB of Italy and Germany, who formed the Panavia company with a view to creating a Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). The basic design was a swing-wing airframe to provide good handling at high and low speeds, but with the usual problem of goal-posts being moved, layering additional requirements upon the project that resulted in a larger airframe. The MRCA first flew in the early 70s, powered by two Rolls Royce RB199 engines, and looking very much like a Tornado, replete with the two seats that were a bone of contention at one point. One thing I'm bothered about - how to do the bendy acrylic rod thing for mounting an inflight build? It looks really cool, but how do you go about bending the acrylic rod without melting it? Finally, since Revell ONLY lists Revell paints (Or mixes of Revell paints), I will have to come up with with either Testors ModelMaster, Tamiya or Gunze Mr Color "versions" of the needed camo colors. The 11(F) decals are sourced from an Xtradecal GR.1/F3 sheet from years ago, but I'll have to make the serial number somehow, along with the stencils as the kit has no decals 😩 The aircraft is interesting, being the old two-tone Light Aircraft Grey/Camouflage Grey with one Dk Camo Grey tank and one still in grey/green. I intend to pose it inflight at a steep bank angle so it should be an interesting build!

I will keep looking for more info on the Tornado, before I decide which markings (Probably kit decals) I will do it in. For me, ECM pods & Sidewinders are a must, I just have to find info on the various sensor windows. Guess I won't be using these, so will save for a future project. At least I don't have to chop off those lovely seatbelts! The decals went down easily and, aside from the errors and color match with the stencils, they worked great. I'll let others with more vast knowledge confirm, but I believe the RAPTOR pod wasn't carried until the GR.4 conversion, which has several detail differences from the GR.1, but aftermarket conversions (and likely decals) are available. This is a good time to say, follow the instructions closely throughout the build. This is a complicated kit with many options, and it is easy to glue parts incorrectly, forget to open holes, or flip parts from one side to the other.

Limited Edition

The kit provides a selection of weapons, although some don’t apply to RAF Tornados. Among those that do are laser-targeted GBU-12s, 2,250-liter fuel tanks, AIM-9 missiles, and BOZ-107 countermeasures and Sky Shadow ECM pods. A nice inclusion would have been Brimstone air-to-ground missiles carried by the GR4 on numerous deployments late in its career. The cuts went well and this fits quite nicely. Obviously will need some filler but it's about as snug as you could get. First big scare out of the way! The Tornado was developed and built by Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a tri-national consortium consisting of British Aerospace(previously British Aircraft Corporation), MBBof West Germany, and Aeritaliaof Italy. It first flew on 14 August 1974 and was introduced into service in 1979–1980. Due to its multirolenature, it was able to replace several different fleets of aircraft in the adopting air forces. The Royal Saudi Air Force(RSAF) became the only export operator of the Tornado in addition to the three original partner nations. A tri-nation training and evaluation unit operating from RAF Cottesmore, the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment, maintained a level ofinternational co-operation beyond the production stage.

The variable-geometry wings feature posable flaps, slats, and spoilers. Italeri designed wings to move, including gearing and a clever mechanism to align the pylons as the wing angle change, but if you pose the flaps down, you won’t be able to take advantage of that. If you leave the wings movable or pose them fully swept, you will need to slice open the rubber wing root seals included in the kit. Before the GR.4 update, the recce-dedicated Tornados in RAF service were the GR.1A variant. This has both cannon removed with the muzzles faired over, small SLIR windows on either side of the lower forward fuselage, and an Infrared Linescan (IRLS) in a streamlined belly fairing (not to be confused with the Italian/German ECR, which has more of a "canoe" shaped fairing). I believe Flightpath/David J. Parkins offers a 1:32 GR.1A conversion/detail set. Anyway, that's as far as I got today, had to wash all the dust off the resin again so while I'm waiting I've started a consolation build of the Revell (Italeri) Mirage IIIE with the cool EC3/3 Ardennes 50th anniversary silver paint job. This is of course a reboxing of the pre-millennial tooling from Revell with new decals for the Gulf War aircraft, which are probably the most popular options for a Tonka with many folks for their own reasons. The original kit is around 20 years old now, and is a very good product of its day, with engraved panel lines, a decent level of detail, and a wide range of aftermarket now available. Where it does suffer is the intakes, which are hollow, but have no internal trunking, leaving interior and the wing-swing mechanism visible if you don't cover them with FOD guards. The kit arrives in one of Revell's preferred top opening boxes with seven large sprues in light blue-grey styrene (one cut in half), two of clear parts, the instruction booklet and a colourful decal sheet. It's been a while since I've perused the sprues of this kit, and I was pleasantly surprised at how modern it looks, with fine engraved panel lines and raised details, a full set of fuel tanks and weaponry, and some good interior detail that will suffice for many, or act as a jumping-off point for detail hounds. This boxing has the additional parts for the GR.1, which also includes the small clear additional sprue, and while not new it does give the modeller a more accurate finished result.

Revell | No. 04923 | 1:32

Thanks, that's good info. The set you linked to is the Meindert one I referred to in post #2, and sounds like Heritage went a bit further so hopefully it's closer to reality! The forward fuselage fit neatly along panel lines, and I needed to use just a swipe of filler along the curved join under the nose. Somewhat ironically, most of the better Tornado references I have, deal specifically with the IDS, rather than the ECR (not that I necessarily need them for the purpose of this review), so specific comments regarding technical differences (if any) between this and the IDS, will be ignored.

Looks pretty familiar, the old Revell GR.1 kit which has now been not so much surpassed as smashed into the Stone Age by the new Italeri masterpiece. This will be a conversion to the F3 using Heritage Aviation's resin conversion set as a basis. Thought I'd better get on and do it before Italeri release an F3! (I hope!!) Also have these @djparkins Flightpath ALARMs from an earlier Tornado build - they'll need a bit of work as they've been rattling around in a spares box for about ten years. But that gives you a clue what the finished aircraft will be representing...! I have the Revell F2 nose cone a small run nose from a F3 conversion that I acquired from someone in Europe 15 odd years ago https://designer.home.xs4all.nl/models/tornado-resin/tor-resin-2.htm and a set of drawings that someone kindly sent to me. I also own the Heritage conversion. The Revell F2 nose, the drawings and the F3 conversion nose from the linked set are all the same length - however the Heritage nose is several mm longer. As I said at the start I do not have the real length of the F3 nose to make a 100% correct decision regarding who got this right. But I wasn’t done yet; a bunch of parts came at final assembly, including separate antennas, weapons, landing gear, detailed canopy rails, and more.

OK, I think it really boils down then to how accurate you want to be, how much (or little) aftermarket you want, and how creative you can get 🙂

Now, let's talk about this nose...Every one of these I've seen built, well let's just say the nose looks 'off'... Let me make it clear, these are excellent models built by very capable modellers and this is by no means a criticism of their skills or abilities but to highlight what I believe to be a weakness of the existing conversion sets: The instructions indicate building and install the engines before closing the rear fuselage, but they can be inserted along with the aft bulkhead at the end of the build, making cleanup and painting easier. The engines have molded details and include the Tornado’s trademark clamshell thrust reversers, but purists will want to enhance the engines with refined detail.There are two options in the box, and you'd be right if you guessed that they were both painted in desert pink. From the box you can build one of the following: They do appear to be very underscale! Possibly a couple of 1/48 seats managed to sneak into the box? There are a couple of different releases of the "new tool" Revell 1:32 Tornado (and a few more with RAF options that just aren't labeled as such on the box), so specifying a kit number would help verify your options strictly OOB. The fuselage plug also fit pretty well, but I ended up dunking it in some boiling hot water and reshaping it a little to fit both the nose and mid sections better. The trademark Tornado fin fits like the proverbial glove and even the small vortex generators supplied as tiny PE parts did not annoy me too badly.